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26 - My Intercourse - part 3 - The Ego and His Own - Max Stirner · The Philosophy Insights Collection

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My Intercourse, Part three. Edgarbure inveages against the determination of the regent by
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birth by chance. But when the people have become the sole power in the
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state page one hundred and thirty two, have we not been in it a
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master from chance? Why? What is the people? The people has always
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been only the body of the government. It is many under one hat,
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a prince's hat, or many under one constitution. And the constitution is the
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prince. Princes and peoples will persist so long as both do not collapse.
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Are you fall together? If under one constitution there are many peoples, as
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in the ancient Persian monarchy, and today, then these people's rank only as
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provinces. For me, the people is in any case an accidental power,
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a force of nature, an enemy that I must overcome. What is one
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to think of under the name of an organized people page one hundred and thirty
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two. A people that no longer has a government that governs itself, in
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which therefore no ego stands out prominently, A people organized by ostracism. The
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banishment of ego's ostracism makes the people autocrat. If you speak of the people,
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you must speak of the prince. For the people if it is to
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be a subject and make history, must, like everything that acts, have
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a head. It's supreme head. White Link sets this forth in di Urpliashi
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Taiachi, and throud Harm declares own society or angzida Aschefel near pu Viev.
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The vox populife is now always held up to us, and public opinion is
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to rule our prince. Certainly, the roots populy life is at the same
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time vox deer, but is either of any use and is not. The
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vox principles also rocks day. At this point the nationals may be brought to
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mind. To demand of the thirty eight states of Germany that they shall act
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as one nation can only be put alongside the senseless desire that thirty eight swarms
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of bees led by thirty eight queen bees shall unite themselves into one swarm bees.
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They all remain. But it is not the bees as bees that belong
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together and can join themselves together. It is only that the subject bees are
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connected with the ruling queens. Bees and people are destitute of will, and
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the instinct of their queens leads them. If one were to point the bees
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to their beehood, in which at any rate they are all equal to each
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other, one would be doing the same thing that they are now doing so
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stormily in pointing the Germans to their german hood. Why gimmnhood is just like
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beehood in this very thing that it bears in itself the necessity of cleavages and
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separations. Yet without pushing on to the last separation, where if the complete
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carrying through of the process of separating, its end appears, I mean to
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the separation of man from Man, Germanhood does indeed divide itself into different peoples
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and tribes i e. Behind, But the individual who has the quality of
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being a German is still as powerless as the isolated bee. And yet only
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individuals can enter into union with each other. And all alliances and leagues of
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people are and remain mechanical compoundings, because those who come together, at least
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so far as the peoples are regarded as one that have come together. Our
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destitute of will only with the last separation the separation itself end and change to
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unification. Now the nationals are exerting themselves to set up the abstract, lifeless
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unity of beehood, but the self owed are going to fight for the unity
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will by their own will for union. This is the token of all reactionary
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wishes that they want to set up something general, abstract, an empty,
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lifeless concept, in distinction from which this self owned aspire to relieve the robust,
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lively particular from the trashy burden of generalities. The reactionaries would be glad
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to smite a people, a nation forth from the earth. The self owned
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have before their eyes only themselves. In essentials, the two efforts that are
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just now the order of the day to wit, the restoration of provincial rights
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and of the old tribal divisions thanks Bavarians, Lustia, etc. And the
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restoration of the entire nationality coincide in one. But the Germans will come into
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unison i e. Unite themselves only when they not over their bee hood as
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well as all the beehives. In other words, when they are more than
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Germans. Only then can they form a German union. They must not want
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to turn back into their nationality, into the womb in order to be born
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again. But let everyone turn into himself. How ridiculously sentimental will one German
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grasps another's hands and presses it with sacred awe, because he too is a
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German with that he is something great. But this will certainly still be thought
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touching as long as people are enthusiastic for brotherliness i e. As long as
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they have a family disposition from the supersition of piety, from brotherliness or childlikeness,
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or however else the soft hearted piety phrases one from the family spirit.
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The nationals who want to have a great family of Germans cannot liberate themselves.
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Aside from this, the so called nationals would only have to understand themselves rightly
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in order to lift themselves out of their juncture with the good nature touthumainiates.
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For the uniting of material ends and interests which they demand of the Germans comes
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to nothing else than the voluntarily union. Carrier inspired cries out whil roads are
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to the more penetrating eye, the way to a life of the people e
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g. Has not yet anywhere appeared in such significance. Quite right, it
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will be a life of the people that has nowhere appeared, because it is
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not a life of their people. So Carrier then combats himself Page ten.
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Pure humanity or manhood cannot be better represented than by a people fulfilling its mission.
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Why this nationality only is represented. Washed out generality is lower than the
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form complete in itself, which is itself a whole and lives as a living
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member of the truly general be organized. Why the people is this very washed
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out generality, and it is only a man that is the form complete in
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itself the inpersonality of what they call peopled nation. Is clear also from this
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that a people which wants to bring its eye into view to the best of
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its power, puts at its head the ruler without will. It finds itself
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in the alternative, either to be subjected to approach who realizes only himself is
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individual pleasure. Then it does not recognize in the absolute master its own will,
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the so called will of the people. Or to see on the throne
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a prince who gives effort to no will of his own, then it has
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a prince without will, whose placed some ingenious clockwork would perhaps feel just as
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well. Therefore, insight need go only a step further. Then it becomes
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clear of itself that the eye of the people is an impersonal spiritual power,
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the law the people's. I therefore is earth spook, not an I.
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I am I only by this that I make myself. I e that it
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is not another who makes me, but I must be my own work.
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But how is it with this eye of the people. Chance plays it into
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the people's hand, Chance gives it this or that, or Lord accidents procure
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it. One he is not. It's the sovereign people's product, as I
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am my product, conceived of one wanting to talk you into believing that you
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were not your eye. But Tom or Jack was your eye. But so
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it is with the people, and rightly for the people has an eye as
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little as the eleven planets counter together have an eye, though they evolve around
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a common center. Bailey's utcurrence is representative of the slave disposition that folks manifests
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before the sovereign people, as before the Prince I have says he no longer
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any extra reason. Why the general reason has pronounced itself. My first law
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was the nation's will. As soon as it had assembled and knew nothing beyond
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its sovereign will, he would have no extra revisals. And yet this extra
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reason alone accomplishes everything just so. Mirabeau in theys in the words, no
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power on earth has the right to say to the nation's representatives, it is
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my will. As with the Greeks, there is now a wish to make
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a man zoom politician, a scientist of the state, or political man.
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So he ranked for a long time as a citizen of heaven. But the
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Greek fell into ignominy along with his state. The citizen of heaven likewise falls
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with heaven. We, on the other hand, are not willing to go
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down along with the people, the nation and nationality, not willing to be
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merely political men or politicians. Since the revolution, they have striven to make
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the people happy, and in making the people happy great, et cetera,
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they make us unhappy. The people's good hap is my mishap. What empty
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talk the political liberals uttered with empathetic decorum is well seen again in your rets
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on taking part in the state. Their conclaint is made of those who are
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indifferent and do not take part, who are not in the full sensed citizens.
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And the author speaks as if one could not be man at all if
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one did not take a lively part in state affairs, i e. If
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one were not a politician. In this he is right, for if estate
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ranks as the warder of everything human, we can have nothing human without taking
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part in it. But what does this make out against the egoist, Nothing
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at all, because the egoist is to himself the warder of the human and
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has nothing to say to the state except get out of my sunshine. Only
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when the state comes in contact with his ownness does the egoist take an active
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interest in it. If the condition of the state does not bear hard on
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the closet philosopher, is he to occupy himself with it? Because it is
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his most sacred duty. So long as the state does according to his wish,
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what need has he to look up from his studies? Let those who
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form an interest of their own want to have conditions otherwise busy themselves with them.
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Not now, nor ever more. Ut sacred duty bring folks to reflect
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about the state as little as they become disciples of science, artists, etc.
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From sacred duty. Egoism alone can impel them to it, and will
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as soon as things have become much worse. If you showed faults that the
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egoism demanded that they busy themselves with state affairs, you would not have to
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call on them long. If, on the other hand, you appeal to
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their love of fatherlance, etc. You will long teach to the deaf hearts
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in behalf of this service of love. Certainly, in your sense, the
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egoists will not participate in state affairs at all. In New Wrek utters a
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genuine liberal phrase on page sixteen, man completely fulfills his calling only in feeling
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and knowing himself as a member of humanity, and being active as such.
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The individual cannot realize the idea of manhood if he does not stay himself upon
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all humanity, if he does not draw his powers from it, like Antios.
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In the same place, it is said man's relation to the rarest publica
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is degraded to a purely private matter by the theological view, is accordingly made
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away with by denial, as if the political view did otherwise with religion.
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Their religion is a private matter. If instead of sacred duty, man's destiny,
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the calling to full manhood, and similar commandments, it will held up
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to the people that their self interest was infringed on when they let everything in
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the state go as it goes, then without declamations, they would be addressed,
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as one will have to address them at the decisive moment if he wants
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to attain his end. Instead of this, the theology. Hating authors says,
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if there has ever been a time when the state laid claim to all
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that are hers, such a time is ours. The thinking man sees in
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participation in the theory and practice of the state a duty, one of the
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most sacred duties that rest upon him, and then takes under closer consideration the
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unconditional necessarity that everybody participate in the state. He in whose head or heart
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or both the state is seated, He who is possessed by the state,
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or the believer in the state, is a politician, and remains such to
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all eternity. The state is the most necessary means for the complete development of
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mankind. It assuredly has been so long as we wanted to develop mankind.
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But if we want to develop ourselves, it can be to us only a
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means of hinderance. Can state and people still be reformed and better? Now
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as little as the nobility, the clergy, the church, etc. They
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can be abrogated, annihilated, burn away with not reformed. Can I change
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a piece of nonsense into sense by reforming it? Or must I drop it
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outright? Henceforth, what is to be done is no longer about the state.
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The form of the state, etc. But about me. With this,
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all questions about the prince's power, the Constitution, et cetera, sink
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into their true abyss and their true nothingness. I this nothing shall put forth
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my creations from myself to the chapter of society. Belongs also the party,
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whose praise has of late been sung in the state. The party is current
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party, party who should not join one. But the individual is unique,
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not a member of the party. He unites freely and separates freely. Again,
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the party is nothing but a state. In the state, and in
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this smaller estate, peace is also to rule, just as in the greater
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The very people who quite loud is that there must be an opposition in the
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state, invey against every discord in the party, a proof that they too
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want only a state. All parties are shattered, not against the state,
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but against the ego. One hears nothing often than now from the admonition to
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remain true to his party. Party men despise nothing so much as a mugwump.
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One must run with his party through thick and thin, and unconditionally approve
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and represent its chief principles. It does not need go quite so badly.
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Here, as with closed societies, because these find their members to dict laws
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or statutes e g. The Orders the Society of Jesus, etc. But
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yet the party ceases to be a union at the same moment at which it
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makes certain principles binding and wants to have them assured against the tacks. But
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this moment is the very birth act of the party as party. It is
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already a born society, a dead union, an idea that has become fixed.
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As a party of absolutism, it cannot will that its members should not
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doubt the irrefagible truth of this principle. They could cherish this doubt only if
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they were egoistic enough to want still to be something outside their party, i
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e. Nonpartisans. Non partisans they cannot be as party men, but only
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as egoists. If you are a Protestant and belong to that party, you
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must only justify Prottism at most, purge it, not reject it. If
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you are a Christian and belong among men to the Christian Party, you cannot
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be beyond this as a member of this party, But only when your egoism
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are you non partianship impels you to it. What exertions the Christians down to
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hegel and the Communists have put forth to make the party strong. They stuck
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to it that Christianity must contain the eternal truth, and that one needs only
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to get at it, make sure of it, and justify it. In
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the short the party cannot bear non partianship. And it is in this that
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egoism appears. What matters the party to me, I shall find enough anyhow,
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who unite with me without swearing allegiance to my flag. He who passes
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over from one party to another is at one abused as a turncoat. Certainly,
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morality demands that one stands by his party, and to become a postate
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from it is to spot oneself with the stain of faithfulness. But owness knows
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no commandments of faithlessness, adhesion, et cetera. Owness permits everything, even
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apostasy, defection unconsciously. Even the moral themselves let themselves be led by this
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principle when they have to judge one who passes over to their party, Nay,
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they are likely to be making posseolytes. They should only, at the
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same time acquire a consciousness of the fact that one must commit immoral actions in
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order to commit his own I e hear that one must break faith, yes
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even his oath, in order to determine himself instead of being determined by considerations
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in the eyes of people of strict moral judgment, and apostate always shimmers in
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equivocal colors, and will not easily obtain their confidence for their sticks to him
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their taint of faithlessness i e. Of an immorality. In the lower man,
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this view is found almost generally advanced thinkers or hereto as always into an
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uncertainty and bewilderment, and the contradiction necessarily founded in the principle of morality does
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not, on account of the confusion of their concepts, come clearly to their
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consciousness. They do not venture to call the apostate gain right immoral, because
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they themselves enticed to apostasy, to defection from one religion to another, etc.
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Still, they cannot give up the standpoint of morality either. And yet
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here if the occasion was to be seized to step outside of morality, are
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the own or unique perchance a party? How could they be owned if they
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were e g. Belonged to a party, or is one to hold with
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no party in the very act of joining them and entertaining their circle, one
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forms a union with them that lasts as long as party and I pursue one
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and the same goal. But today I still share the party's tendency, as
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by tomorrow I can do so no longer, and I become untrue to it.
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The party has nothing binding obligatory for me, and I do not have
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respect for it. If it no longer pleases me, I become its foam.
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In every party that cares for itself and its persistent the members are unfree,
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or better unknowned, in that degree they lack egoism, in that degree
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in which a surface desire of the party, the independence of the party conditions
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the lack of independence in the party members. A party of whatever kind it
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may be, can never deal without a confession of faith. For those who
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belong to the party must believe in its principle. It must not be brought
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in doubt or put in question by them. It must be a certain,
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indutable thing for the party member. That is, one must belong to a
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party or the unsold. Else one is not truly a party man, but
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more or less an egoist. Harbor a doubt of Christianity, and you are
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already no longer a true christian you have lifted yourself to the effrontry of putting
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a question beyond it and hailing Christianity before your egoism judgment seat. You have
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sinned a ghost Christianity. This party cause, but it is surely not e
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g. A cause for the Jews, another party, but well for you.
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If you do not let yourself be affrighted, your effrontery helps you to
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own us. So then an egoist could never embrace a party or take up
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with a party. Oh yes, only he cannot let himself be embraced and
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taken up by the party. For him, the party remains all the time
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nothing but a gathering. He is one of the party he takes part.
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The best state will clearly be that which has the most loyal citizens. And
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the more the devoted, mindful legality is lost so much the more we the
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state, this system of morality, this moral life itself, be diminished in
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force and quality. With the good citizens, the good state too perishes and
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dissolves into anarchy and lawlessness. Respect for the law. By this cement,
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the total of the state is held together. The law is sacred, and
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he who affronts it a criminal without crime. No state the moral world,
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and this the state is is crammed full of stamps, cheats, liars,
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thieves, et cetera. Since the state is the lordship of law its hierarchy,
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it follows that the egoist, in all cases where his advantage runs against
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the states, can satisfy himself only by crime. A state cannot give up
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the claim that its laws and ordinances are sacred. At this the individual ranks
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as the unholy barbarian natural man egoist over against the state, exactly as he
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once was regarded by the Church. Before the individual. The state takes on
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the nimbus of a saint. Thus it issues a law against dueling. Two
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men who are both at one in this that they are willing to stake their
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life for a cause, no matter what, are not to be allowed this
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because the state will not have it. It imposes a penalty on it.
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Where is the liberty of self determination? Then it is at once quite another
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situation. If, as eg in North America, society determines to let the
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duellists spare certain evil consequences of their act eg. Withdrawal of the credit.
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Hitherto enjoyed to refuse credit is everybody's affair, and if a society wants to
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withdraw it for this or that reason. The man who is hit cannot therefore
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complain of enrichment on his liberty. Society is simply availing itself of its own
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liberty. That is, no penalty for sin, no penalty for a crime.
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The jewel is no crime, there but only an act against which the
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society adopts countermeasures, resolves on a defense. The state, on the contrary,
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stamps the jewel as a crime, i e. As an injury to
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its sacred law. It makes a criminal case. The society leads it to
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the individual's decision whether he will draw upon himself evil consequences and inconveniences by his
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mode of action, and hereby recognizes his free decision. The state behaves in
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exactly the reverse way, denying all right to the individual's decision and instead ascribing
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the sole right to its own decision the law of the state, so that
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he who transgresses the commandment it is looked upon as if he were acting against
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God's commandment, a view which likewise was once maintained by the Church. Here
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God is the Holy in and of himself, and the commandments of the Church
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as of the state, are the commandments of this Holy One, which he
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transmits to the world through his inlinited and lords by the grace of God.
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If the Church had deadly sins, this state has capital crimes. If the
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one had heretics, the other has traitors, the one ecclesiastical penalties, the
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other criminal penalties, the one in custorial process, the other fiscal. In
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short, their sins, here crimes, their inquisition, and here inquisition.
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Will the sanctasy of the state not fall like the churches? The awe of
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its laws, the reverence for its highness, the humility of its subjects.
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Will this remain? Will the saint's face not be stripped of its adornment?
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What a folly to as of the state's authority, that it should enter into
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an honorable fight with the individual and as they express themselves in the matter of
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freedom of the purse, share sun and wind equally. If the state,
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this thought, is to be a de factual power, it simply must be
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a superior power against the individual. The state is secret and must not expose
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itself to the impudent attacks of individuals. If the state is sacred, there
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must be censorship. The political liberals in the former and dispute the interference,
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But in any case they concede repressive measures to it. For they stick to
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this That state is more from the individual and exercises a justified revenge called punishment.
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Punishment has a meaning only when it is to afford expiation for the injuring
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of a sacred thing. If something is sacred to anyone, he certainly deserves
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punishment when he acts as its enemy. A man who lets a man's life
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continue in existence because to him it is sacred and he has a dread of
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touching it, is simply a religious man. Whitling lays pride at the door
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of social disorder and lives in the expectation that under communistic arrangements, crimes will
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become impossible because the temptations to them e g. Money fall away. As
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however, his organized society is also exalted into a sacred and involuable one.
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Plates in that good hearted opinion e g. With their mouth professed alliance to
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the communistic society, but worked under hand for its ruin would not be lacking.
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Besides, Waiting has to keep on with curative means against the natural remainder
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of human diseases and weaknesses, and curative means always a marriage to begin with,
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that individual's will be looked upon as called to a particular salvation, and
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hence treated according to the requirements of this human calling. Curative means or healing
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is only the reverse side of punishment. The theory of cure runs parallel with
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the theory of punishment. If the latter sees in an action a sin against
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right, the former takes it for a sin of the man against himself,
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as a decadence from his health. But the correct thing is that I regard
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it either as an action that suits me, as one that does not suit
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me, as hostile or friendly to me, I e. That I treat
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it as my property which I cherish or demolish. Crime or disease are not
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either of them. An egoistic view of the matter, i e. A
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judgment starting from me, but starting from another, to wit whether it injures
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right, general right or the health partly of the individual but the sick one
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partly of the generality society. Crime is treated inarextibly, disease with loving gentleness,
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compassion, etc. End of Section twenty six